


Swimming In The Dark

by SpaceAsthmatic



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms
Genre: Action/Adventure, Being Lost, Best Friends, Caves, Creepy, F/M, Friendship, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Major Original Character(s), Mirkwood, Missing in Action, Monsters, Pre-Lord of The Rings, Serious Injuries, Stalking, Suspense, Trapped, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:33:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28020066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceAsthmatic/pseuds/SpaceAsthmatic
Summary: After Legolas' patrol gets caught in a flash flood, they're swept into a system of pitch black caves beneath them. They have to try and figure they're way out of the maze, the only problem being, they have to avoid the creatures that call this darkness home. (Wanted to practice writing something creepy/unsettling)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

**Warning: There’s a few graphic descriptions of gore/violence. If this something that can be a trigger for you, please read with caution.**

**0.0.0.0.0**

The rain assaulted their faces with vicious and wild abandon from above as if it were possible that their presence here was entirely personal and fueled by burning ice. The weather about them was getting so extreme and persistent that the smallest of them, Avaleina, had begun to obviously resist the urge to shiver.

Usually, Legolas would be able to lie and claim that he knew they would find a cave nearby. Or that soon the trail of the rocky outcropping they were scrambling across would eventually turn them so that the wind was at their backs. Maybe that soon the rain would let up. But he could feel in his bones that none of those things were true, and if he spoke now all they would hear is his own apprehensions. 

As they slipped and stumbled hastily across the smiley rocks Legolas laughed inwardly at the fact humans were convinced Elves could not feel any sense of cold. How Legoas wished that were true. Eliciting a cold response was a much more complicated affair for elves certainly. An act that hinged on several requirements to render the body weak enough for it to even be susceptible to such a ghastly thing, but it was certainly possible. 

And it was extremely unpleasant, every single time. 

“I hate this,” Farlen muttered so quietly Legoas wondered if anybody other than him had heard the words. Legolas pretended he hadn't heard, feeling his own trepidation echoing hollowly through every inch of his extremely alert body. If only it was easier to pretend he hadn’t heard his stomach chanting that they were in store for an unavoidable horror. 

At first Legolas’ mind had wandered and attempted to hazard a guess to the source of his unease, but it was not long before he quickly had to turn his mind's eye elsewhere. Legolas knew that his thoughts and creations within his mind would always be ten times worse than whatever actually ended up occuring to them. 

That's what he told himself, at least. 

His mind was convinced he was to be expecting some sort of ambush attack, or an alarmingly elaborate scheme to fall upon their heads at literally any moment. It was not until the water began to flow under their feet in steady ceaseless streams that the thought occurred to him the threat could be much bigger than any trap or attack. 

And so, so much worse because there was no possible way to to defend or protect yourself. You were at the mercy of the world and its whims, which had never much proven to land in favor of anything but itself and extreme disfavor for anything that was not itself. 

Their footing grew increasingly hard to maintain and it was not long before it seemed the force of the water was pulling their feet along the rocks to move them forward regardless if the elves wanted to move forward or not.

Not a word was said among them, but the tension was suffecniet enough that Legolas knew they were all thinking and expecting the same thing. 

A forced fist fight with mother earth. 

“Somebody grab Ava!” Legolas shouted from somewhere ahead of him. Confused at the reasoning but trusting his judgment Farlen turned around to try and pull Avaleina to him. But she wasn't there. 

Farlen didn’t have a chance to acknowledge what was happening or prepare before without ceremony, or even half a second of warning the entire world began to crumble from beneath Farlens feet. Water enough to fill three rivers slammed into him. Layers and miles of sturdy rock vanishing effortlessly as if it had never actually existed in the first place. 

Even over the catastrophic noise of what he could only imagine was the sudden departure of half the mountainside he could still hear the screams of fear personified. As he looked around with terror he was forced to observe as face after face and life after life vanished underneath the massive moving curtain of huge rocks and overwhelming water. 

He tried to catch a glimpse of Legolas, hoping that he would be able to throw himself down the mountain after his Prince with the hopes of doing anything and everything within his power to keep him alive. But already, there was not even a whisper of blond hair. 

Which was somehow more unsettling than the actual events unfolding around him, because nothing ever got the best of their prince like that. Not even mother nature. And especially not when he felt responsible for everybody around him. 

How had all traces of him already been swept away? It didn’t seem possible. 

As even more water and rocks began to sweep past them, he was further distraught to witness several more friends get struck by massive boulders that cast them beneath the water near instantly. He did not need the gift of foresight to know they would never rise from those hateful murky depths. 

A raw scream born of pure instinct rattled him out of his near strancelike shock and back into the horrid reality unfolding in front of him. He caught an extremely fast glance of Avaleina being drug down the mountain by the force of the water with a large rock slab laying over her body. 

Farlen knew that he needed to get to her, Ava was the weakest swimmer out of all of them. In currents like this, she would not stand a shadow of a chance. 

As fast as he saw her, she vanished.

A rock struck his head, and everything went dark and silent. 

  
  


She had no idea how long she had been thrown and tossed around among the rocks and the endless water, but at some point she dropped into a dark nothing. She fell for several seconds before she slammed into a rock hard wall of near frozen temperatures. Total darkness encased her completely, and with the currents continued pounding from above as hard as they were it was nearly impossible to find the surface of the water. 

Over and over again she struggled to the top and was forced back under again.

Once Avalena’s head broke the water's surface longer than a few seconds, she thought she had gone blind for such an allencompasing darkness had swallowed her to its depths. So complete that she could not even see where a wall or any end to this pool of ice water. 

With every move of her arms to keep herself afloat was extremely painful, a dim memory made its way to the surface of a large slab of rock crushing her right arm against her stomach, and her left against her back. 

Her chin bobbed under the water's surface as she struggled to stay above it, struggling to find any place in the deep pool that did not seem determined to drown her. 

An echoing scream shattered the darkness, and she heard the sound of another body splashing under the surface. Whoever it was seemed to struggle significantly less than she had to get situated at the surface of the water. 

But unlike Avaleina, whoever was down with her did not remain silent once they bobbed to the surface. As soon as their lungs had air, they continued to scream. She wanted to yell for them to stop making so much noise, but knew that he would not hear her over the sound of the water continuing to pour into the underground pool. 

Desperately, she began to swim towards the sound of his distress. 

As she desperately swam towards him, Avaleina felt the unmistakable feeling of something incredibly sinister darting swiftly underneath her. Moving so quickly that the currents pushed up against her stomach. Heading in the exact same direction she was heading in.But much, much faster. 

Throwing caution to the wind and knowing that she would not be able to reach and warn him in time, Avaleina yelled for him to be silent. To stop making noise. 

Stop splashing around. 

He didn’t hear her over the sounds of his own hysterical fear. 

His screams of confused distress turned into pained terror and a metallic smell exploded into the air, and Avaleina fell silent. After several horrible splashing noises absolute silence descended upon her, thicker than the darkness could ever hope to be. 

Ava didn’t even know who it had been, other than that it was one of the younger warriors who had come with them. 

Again she felt the horrifying and unmistakable sign of sinister things swirling in the water. This time towards her. 

Assuming and hoping that whatever creature could possibly live in this darkness relied on hearing rather than sight, she covered her mouth with a hand to stifle her ragged breaths. Trusting the rushing waters still rushing in to mask the movements of her legs as they kept moving. 

With the use of one arm occupied with keeping her quiet, the struggle to keep her nose above water increased with alarming speed. But she didn’t dare remove the hand as the creatures continued to swirl underneath. 

  
  


Legolas woke up on his back in the dark, cold water nearly came up to his shoulders but at least didn’t restrict his breath. He sat up, stifling a groan as his body protested loudly to the action. 

Dripping water echoed all around him. 

The darkness pressed against him even more forcefully. 

He stood up carefully, hating the way the water dripped and sloshed off his clothes. 

He hated it even more when something else in the darkness sloshed right back, and continued to slosh its way closer to him. 

Panicking, Legolas felt for a wall, stumbling several steps to the left before he found one. The sloshing getting even closer from his right. 

Desperately his hands patted and searched the wall, looking for any sort of hand hold he could possibly get. Feeling beyond blessed when he finally found one. He grabbed ahold of it securely and lifted himself up off the ground, his right hand searching higher up for another handhold. 

Eventually finding one, he hauled himself upwards once more until both hands were at the highest point and his feet were on the lower. 

The sloshing that had been coming towards him stopped suddenly and he sank, feeling that whatever was waiting right underneath him. 

A horrible snarling, sniffing sound proved his assumption correct. A different dripping noise added itself to the others, and judging by the stringiness of it, there was a good chance it was saliva. 

The deep, sniffing inhales continued beneath him and Legolas raised his feet higher on the wall, seconds before a slapping sound rippled up from near where they had been. The creature, whatever it was, seemed to be searching for where he went. 

He heard a few more slothing noises, as it paced up and down the wall before falling silent again. 

Legolas could hear it breathing. Every breath sounded like raspy gasps and famished growls. “Come here. Come here. Come here.” A horrible voice crooned to him in the darkness, its mouth obviously not made to pronounce those words. Or any words at all. Every word came out jagged and broken, twisted almost too far from what it should have been to be understandable. 

Every syllable made his skin crawl, “Come here. Come here. Come here.” 

As silently as he possibly could, Legolas began searching for another handhold and a way to climb higher away from this creature. 

Its ragged breathing never slowed, neither did its calls for Legolas to join it on the ground. 

  
  


Farlen woke to the sounds of pained screaming, desperate begging, and the sicking sound of raw flesh being torn off of bones. He went to move, to react, do something. But he nearly fell off of an extremely precarious ledge. 

It was a wonder that he had even managed to stop on it in the first place. 

As carefully as he could possibly manage, Farlen looked over the ledge to the echoing darkness below him. Just barely making out the outlines of several monsters he had not seen or heard described before. 

Long necks were attached to a sleek black body with four flippers that ended tipped with ferocious looking claws. Their long teeth glinted in the spots of light that filtered from somewhere above them, bits of flesh getting stuck on their razor sharp edges. 

As another neck declined, the screaming stopped. 

A chorus of wheezing sounds that were far too close to laughter for his comfort filled the chamber, followed by their resumption of dinner. 

Farlen took a deep and calming breath, forcing himself to take a count of how many bodies laid on the circular floor beneath him: Seven. 

Seven friends lost, devoured. Consumed by this darkness and the creatures that lurked inside of it. 

The disgusting sound of ripping continued, as Farlen began to feel forwards along the ledge. Testing how sturdy the rock was before he inched himself alone on his stomach, unwilling to draw too much attention to himself just yet. For all he knew, these creatures could fly, and up here on the ledge that was the last problem that he needed. The very, very last. 

  
  


Tern stared at the carvings in the wall trying to make sense of all the squares and lines etched into it. If he didn’t know any better, he would have said that it was some sort of crude map of some kind. But none of the languages looked familiar to him,so he couldn't be sure. 

He used his fingers to trace the lines over and over again until his mind had them completely memorized nonetheless. 

After hours of wandering alone in the dark for what felt like hours, this was the only sign of life or civilization he’d been able to find. 

He’d wanted to call out for the others on his team, to see if he was the only one that had ended up in this dark pit. But a voice in his mind that sounded suspiciously like Ferdan warned him against it. 

Thus far he had been given no proof to say there were other living things in here with him, but he didn’t want to find out that assumption was incorrect by running directly into something. 

Something that knew its way around this pitch-black maze. 

Satisfied that he lines had been etched clearly into his mind, Tern finally turned away from it and continued winding down the hallway. His feet making subtle splashing noises as he went. 

  
  


**The creepiness will continue in the next chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

Avaleina floated on her back, every inch of her energy and willpower occupied with keeping herself from shivering. 

Both from wild fear and from seeping cold. 

Around her the water was calm and silent, not so much as a ripple breaking its inky surface. The creatures that seemed to be trapped in the pool with her appeared to rest on the bottom of the tank without even the twitch of an eye. As long as there was no movement or noise on the surface of the water. 

So Ava refused to move a muscle, and she refused to utter a sound. 

Even when a disembodied hand drifted close to her, rubbing against her cheek and tangling in her hair. Something long sinewy drifted from the wrist and continued to caress her check, dangerously close to her eye. 

Against her will, Ava whimpered into the darkness as she snapped her eyes shut against the assault. 

She felt a small stir of current from the bottom of the pool as whatever it was shifted in its place, somehow her heartbeat managed to increase speed with sudden fear. Even as lingering exhaustion continued to encroach on her mind. 

Thankfully, the waters returned to their glassy stillness. 

Slowly her heart returned to a steady pattern. 

Avaleina knew that she needed to find a way to get herself out of this pool, but thus far she had only been able to explore the walls haphazardly, bumping against them as she floated, near lifeless. The requirement of keeping all her movement and sound to an absolute minimum prevented her from getting much of an idea comprehensive, but so far all the rock she had come into contact with was smoother than steel. 

She assumed from water erosion. 

Not that it really mattered why the walls were the way that they were, all that mattered was that it might be the thing that finally kept her from returning home. Well, that and the fact that the limbs that had been steadily growing number with the cold had begun to feel warm once again. Hot, even.

Almost as if she were sitting near a crackling fire. 

She bit her lip as it quivered slightly with the want to cry, and continued to float in the all encompassing darkness. 

No matter how careful and slow he’d made his way, Farlen had very nearly slipped from the maze of slim ledges seven times before he was even out of the circular pit. Very nearly joined his dead teammates on the buffet table. 

Even as he continued to inch his way farther and farther away, the haunting echoes of their breathy laughter seemed to find him no matter where he turned and crawled. He hadn’t realized that there had to have been some sort of leaking light in the circle room until he was out of it. 

And the air around him somehow continued to grow even darker, until it was complete darkness like he had never seen or experienced before. Even his elven eyes were unable to show him much beyond a few vague black shapes that indicated where deep ledges or drops were hiding. 

Farlen had no way of knowing where he was going, if he was going in a giant circle, or perhaps worst of all headed to an even more dangerous place hidden deep under the earth. Slithering across the rocks alongside all the other creatures of Eru that had been forgotten in this pit. 

Below him, there was movement. 

A subtle, echoless swishing noise of water. 

Not the sound of a large body propelled by clawed fins being dragged along the bottom. It was the sounds of steps. 

Something upright. 

Farlen held his breath, fearing any reverberation off of the stone to signal his existence, his location. 

There was a miniscule chance that whatever was down there was an elf, another one of his patrol that had somehow survived the creatures and was roaming the tunnels along with him. 

His fear, his loneliness, and his depersation wanted him to call out to the creature. Clinging to the faint echoed dream that he wouldn't be left to wander these tunnels alone anymore. 

But his mind and his logic kept his mouth from moving. Knowing that an elf would know better than to be making so much noise, they would be climbing the walls and scurrying along the ledge. Just as he was. 

Silent and unobtrusive. 

Unless, his desperation whispered, unless the elf had been badly injured. Kept them from climbing the walls, or weak with an injury, even delirious perhapes. 

Logic firmly shut the door leading to Farlen’s ears, cutting off desperation mid sentence. 

Then firmly reminding him that whatever it was could likely crawl up the walls faster than Farlen could ever hope to scramble away. 

Whatever it was had likely been here for quite some time already. Knew its way around, all the secrets and shortcuts. It was likely starving, too. 

The sounds of the steps drew closer. Then slower.

Calculating. 

A deep sniffing noise echoed down the chamber. Deeper than any elf, man, or dwarf cold hope to breath. Even on their best day. 

Hands trembling with fear, Farlen carefully and slowly spread outwards form himself. Looking for a loose rock or stone. Anything, really. 

Anything he might hope would be a suitable distraction. 

Once a rock was found, disappointingly small for the crucial task that Farlen was bestowing upon it. The task of hopefully saving him from being a tragically undercooked meal. 

Carefully he tossed the stone as hard as he would dare down the hallway that he had just crawled away from. A snarling noise was heard in return. 

A deep, long, growl was next. The kind that seemed nearly able to rumble the earth alongside the Valar. 

Then silence descended. 

Lingering. 

Waiting. 

Curling in around him like thick, toxic smoke. 

Farlen put a trembling hand over his mouth and remained perfectly still.

The sniffing suddenly continued, before whatever it was louped down the hallway after the rock he had just thrown. Its new speed betrayed the massive size and weight that it must have been carrying. 

As carefully and as quickly as he dared, Farlen began to creep along the ledge once more.

Hoping that darkness and distance would swallow them both, before the creature had another chance to make Farlen disappear first. 

Legolas could hardly tell which way up or down anymore. Which way he had already come from, and which way he needed to go. 

He had no way of knowing how close he was to the cave floor, what might be waiting for him there, or if there was even a cave floor at all. 

No way of knowing which way he should go to try and find some semblance of safety. 

No way of telling if safety was even a concept that existed in the dark places of the world such as this, where the whispers of the sun nor the stars could ever reach. Where not a single plant had ever found or been shown the mercy it needed to take root. 

Places such as this echoed with much more than empty space. It echoed with empty hearts, empty souls, and empty futures. 

Rippling with the kind of atmosphere that should only have been found in the void, deafening in the silence of any sort of purpose other than a desperate need. 

A need that had never been given name, but made a home in the most neglected parts of the earth's surface. 

Legolas had been climbing for what felt like an entire day now, judging by the growing pain and exhaustion settling into his muscles. He found himself nearly glad to have spent so many grueling days suffering under Ferdan’s strict and more than occasionally terrifying tutialige. 

Which made Legolas hate this place all the more. 

Because after Ferdan’s training, there was always a large part of him that expected Mandos to appear out of nowhere and welcome him to the halls. Sometimes, he even thought about accepting the offer, if only to find relief and peace from the training and the aching that came with it. 

Anything that made him thankful for those times, was automatically no good to him. 

The occasional wandering snarls, swishing, and sniffing were the only things keeping his arms from shaking like dry leaves in a storm. 

If only there was something to keep the growing certainty that no amount of training would ever be able to change the fact that Legolas would need to find ground sooner or later. 

That his arms would give out on him sooner or later. 

That it was looking to be sooner, rather than later. 

Tern kept his hand on the right side of the wall and continued to creep his way carefully down the hallway. Ears always listening as intently as possible for some unseen death creeping up on him. 

The pace was slow, one foot carefully checking to ensure the ground ahead of him existed in the first place, and then a more careful inspection was performed to ensure that the rocks were stable. Tern wanted to be thankful for the so far flawless stability of the tunnels, but that just seemed to prove his theory that someone had made these tunnels with a purpose in mind.

Somebody had likely put these creatures down here in the first place for some purpose. 

Somebody had carved the map on the wall. 

Made the traps that had brought them all to this place to begin with. 

Oh how Tern wished he lived in a world where his brain did not automatically know exactly who had carved this labyrinth of darkness forgotten. 

Left creatures in here to grow more feral and grotesque than any creatures had a right to be. Created naturally or crafted hatefully. 

Morgoth's lieutenant had always been known for his ingenuity when it came to creating abominations, twisting the very fabric of a creature's essence into something not even Eru himself would be able to recognize or forgive. 

Tern pushed the stories of werewolves from his mind and forced himself to keep inching down the corridor. 

  
  


Sensing that she was being watched, Avaleina opened her eyes. Somewhat startled to realize she did not remember when they had closed in the first place. 

Her instincts told her it was from somewhere above her, now below, so she tried to see through the endless darkness all the way around her head without moving too much. Stifling a scream when a pair of glowing eyes were staring down directly into her eyes and only a few feet from her head. 

The creature snarled back and struck out with a clawed hand to dig into her shoulder and the top of her right arm, her previous injury from the rocks adding to the pain as it tried to jolt her upright and out of the water.

This time, she had to bite her cheeks to keep from screaming but it wasn't enough. Below, the creatures stirred once. Twice. 

Then they shot upwards, deep zerated teeth digging into a complete circle around her thigh. 

This time, she did scream. The pain from both creatures plus the gravity of being the toy between the was too much, and for several seconds she blacked out. 

As the claw from the creature above her began to slip slightly, it brought her back to consciousness. The last of her body's adrenaline allowed her to force her left hand to get a small dagger hidden on a strap across her back, and stab down at the water creature's neck with all the strength she had left. 

Once she was certain it was in its neck, she wiggled it back and forth to the best of her ability and finally it let go. Falling back into the water. 

With another loud snarl the creature above her dragged her up and out of the water. 

**0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0**

**Thanks for reading!!! Would love to hear your thoughts little beans 🥰**


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